How Deep Are Your Roots?

Look at that beautiful butterfly, and learn from it to trust in God. One might wonder where it could live in tempestuous nights, in the whirlwind, or in the stormy day; but I have noticed it is safe and dry under the broad leaf while rivers have been flooded, and the mountain oaks torn up from their roots.  Jeremy Taylor

How deep do your roots grow?  Our spiritual life is similar to the roots of a tree or plant.  When our roots grow deep we have a stable foundation in which to produce fruit.

My parents grow lavender.  Lavender doesn’t like clay soil which is the type of soil they have at the farm.  We amended the soil prior to planting so the lavender would produce blooms.  One of the things that will happen when you amend the soil is that the plant has a shallow root system so its roots are close to the surface instead of going deep into the soil.  This means that it is harder for the plant to survive without continuously adding more soil around its root system.  Rain will often wash the sandy soil away leaving the roots exposed.  This in turn weakens the plant and eventually it will die.  God created this plant to survive by keeping its root system shallow in our Texas soil and climate.  Our plants have a much weaker root system so we harvest by hand carefully cutting the blooms.    

In France where lavender grows in abundance, the root system is much stronger and grows much deeper.  This is what happens when the perfect growing conditions occur and the soil is the right consistency.  So when they drive the tractor over the plant to harvest the stems and flowers, the plant is strong enough to survive having the top chopped off and it will come back the next year.

We are just like these plants.  If we are planted in good soil we will produce an abundance of fruit.  If we are to grow in our spiritual life and produce an abundance of fruit we must work the soil.  It means we need to devote quiet time with God, spend time with other believers and water daily.  The water we use is critical.  If we don’t use Living Water then our leaves will dry up and we will never produce fruit. 

One of the things that changed my life is the quiet time I spend with God.  I started out by spending an hour a day studying His Word and meditating on it.  I have since added another hour to that time and also the time I spend in my car driving.  What happened during this time is the more I studied His Word the more I wanted to learn.  The more I wanted to learn the more time I wanted to spend meditating on it.  That led to questions, which in turn led me to talk to friends, family and other believers. Every day is like hunting for hidden treasure and I can’t wait to see what I find next.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I search for wisdom in Your Word and You have never failed me.  Help me to keep my mind focused on You and to use the tools that You provide for me to build my faith so that my roots will run deep.  I need You to help me withstand the storms of life that threaten every day.  Thank You for Your Son, the Holy Spirit and You.

Scripture:  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.  So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.  For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:5-17